And the The Welcome to Russian History Retold episode 174. Getting older by the minute, Leonid Brezhnev.

In the last episode I covered the causes of the collapse of the Soviet Union

due to the actions of Yuri and Drappov and Bragenev and to a lesser extent

Constantine Chernenko.

This time I'm going to focus a bit more on Breshnev's time as leader.

Before we go there, I'd like to talk a bit about me and my perceptions of the times. When Breshnev came to power in

1964 I was six years old. Krustchev was a historical figure in my eyes. Breshnev was enemy number one, the living breathing embodiment of an evil system, communism.

My parents taught me to hate communists, as did the media of the day.

This indoctrination can clouds one opinions unless you allow for facts and other people's

opinions to enter your mind.

In the over six years of producing this podcast,

I've had to learn not to take the party line all the time.

Let the facts and evidence lead the way.

Am I always right?

Well, if you ask my youngest daughter,

she's likely to say, hell no.

Am I right more often than not?

I'd like to think so. So where am I going with this? I believe my opinion of

Leonid Breshnev in his rule when I first covered it way back in episode 103

was prejudiced by my indoctrination that he and his fellow

communists were pure evil with no redeeming value. I still believe that

communism as they practiced it was a failed and deeply flawed ideal.

...